"But it is worth recalling the nature of what is not always apparent... an
Iraqi nation, degraded and brutalised by decades of barbarous rule, a country
that is potentially rich but whose people go hungry and whose children die
needlessly from malnutrition and disease."

Opposition party leaders Iain Duncan Smith and Charles Kennedy paid tribute to those British troops killed in the war, expressing sympathy to their families.

Conservative leader Mr Duncan Smith said: "This war was never going to be easy but the cause, I believe, is just."